The Path to Ba Sing Se
by Typewriterman
Summary: What exactly happened to the gang between the Fury of Aang and The Secret of the Fire Nation? Read and find out!
1. Chapter 1

This is my first fanfic...please be gentle...I know its short, but I guess its a way to give you, the reader, a chance to acclimate to my style of writing...Of course I don't own Avatar: The Last Airbender...

* * *

**Book II: Earth **

**The Nature of Balance  
**

The dreams were getting worse…much worse. His out of body experiences continued even after he learned the nature of the Avatar State. In fact they began to increase ever since then. Of the most vivid, would have to be the times when he saw the remains of his dear mentor, Gyatso, and when he was inhabited by Tui, the moon spirit. His most recent activation of the Avatar State was the most vicious. Most of the time, the avatar state was triggered by grief, or out of necessity to save someone he loved. When he had finally found who had taken Appa, all that he could feel was anger.

"_Where is Appa?"_ his voice echoed with the voices of his past as he glowed with the spirit of a hundred Avatars, _"Give me back my bison!"_

Since then, Aang's dreams were different. No longer were they out of body experiences, which ended in the arms of Katara, but of past lives. Aang began to dream of his past lives' exploits, like Avatar Kyoshi's fight against Chin the Conqueror, or Avatar Roku's treason against his own nation. Avatar Roku…his memories were the topic of Aang's dream tonight.

A burst of fire blew towards a grandly decorated metal door, which opened to reveal the Fire Shrine. The red robbed man looked exactly as he had whenever he appeared to Aang. His long white hair and beard flew gracefully as he walked into the high ceiling Shrine. His golden eyes however, looking down, were covered in a look of worry. "I fear that not even the Avatar can prevent this war from happening…" Roku said to himself. The door shut and flashed a blue light as clouds began to gather and cover the room in its ethereal beauty. The Fire Avatar knew that he was no longer in the Shrine, but the spirit world. "It's almost like the Fire Lord is waiting for something, and I worry that it most likely involves me…" Roku murmured again.

Alas, you are correct Roku...A mysterious voice began to say,_ Sozin waits for a comet that will pass over and become stronger tha you can even imagine. _Hearing what his previous life had to say, Roku raised his head in disbelief.

"There has to be another way Avatar-"

-_There is a way, but I refuse to tell you how! It is much too dangerous, even for the Avatar! _ The voice boomed in anger.

"Please, there is no other way! You must tell me or else the whole world will be pulled into a war in which hundreds of thousands of people could die!" Roku pleaded.

_So be it. Deep in the dark part of the Spirit World, there is an ancient spirit that can help, but you must be wary. His name is Po, and he is as treacherous as he as powerful. The Solstice is ending. __We must go our separate ways...for now. It is a dangerous path to take, so I will help you to get there, but only if you are ready. _Looking back with renewed hope, a determined Roku opened his eyes, now illuminated by a bright light, said

"_I'm ready_"


	2. Chapter 2

Ah, the second part of the first episode...good stuff...good stuff...I still don't Own Avatar..but I do own Po...ok, time share!

* * *

**Book II: Earth**

**The Nature of Balance**

Waking up in a sweat, the young Airbender looked around his current surroundings, to try to regain a sense of where he was. Looking around, he saw five or six Sandbender skiffs surrounding the group in a circle, and his friends mixed in with the Sandbenders, sleeping. Aang on the other hand, was sleeping outside of the circle, tracing the series of events that led to him feeling empty inside. It has been maybe a day or two since the Sandbenders "rescued" them from the vulture hornets, and because of them, the gang has had the luxury of food, water, and transportation out of the dessert. Though the sand skiffs were the best they had, they weren't Appa. They could never be Appa. The skiffs weren't white and fluffy, but a dull wooden brown. It could never be your best friend, or even save your life. Looking over to the other side of the camp, he spotted the sleeping huddled form of the man responsible for so much of his current anguish.

In fact, Ghashiun was the only person in the world whom Aang felt an unabridged hatred towards. Not even the Fire Lord deserved what Aang wished upon the young Sandbender. Realizing where his thoughts were going, Aang quickly looked away with tears in his eyes. He couldn't let his emotions control him again. He could never trigger the Avatar State in anger again. Aang was terrified of finally losing control of his actions when he entered the Avatar State, and was incredibly lucky to remember back that he only destroyed a couple of skiffs. He transferred his anger onto his friends, and even worse, accused Katara of being selfish, not caring about how much she had sacrificed and did for everyone, but especially him.

"I can't let that ever happen again…" Aang said to himself, and to make this promise easier on himself, thought back to his confrontation with Ko, the centipede spirit who had "helped" him during the Siege of the North.

_I should hope not Aang…_

With eyes wide open, Aang's face shot towards the voice hoping to see the bluish transparent figure of his mentor and past life,

"Avatar Roku!" Aang called out in eagerness, but looked to see his Earthbending peer taking a seat on the sand next to him.

"Nope, it's just little old me" Toph said frankly. "And Momo". Noticing Aang's weight shift away from her direction, it was obvious that her joke nudged him the wrong way. Well, the other wrong way. "If you want, I'll let you pout alone again." Toph quickly said as she placed Momo onto Aang's lap and attempted to get back onto her feet.

"No Toph, you can stay, I was just…thinking." Aang said quietly to his Sifu, placing Momo on the sand next to him.

"Well I guess it's also easy to figure out what you were thinking about…you want to talk about it? I guess I can play the part of Katara, without the whole, y'know…nevermind." All Aang could do was give Toph a stare, but her sea foam green eyes and blank face reminded him that she was just being Toph.

"I guess," Aang finally said, "I was just thinking about-"

"Appa?" Toph interjected. "Oh, sorry…I'm new at this" she spat out with an awkward grin to try to save the conversation.

"It's ok Toph…" Aang lied, "I'm over that now."

"Oh…well, continue…"

"I was just thinking about this weird dream that I had recently." Seeing that she wouldn't burst in again, Aang simply continued, "It wasn't really a dream, but I was reliving Avatar Roku's memory, or, my memory. It was just before the war started, and Roku went to the spirit world to find a spirit name Po to help him against the Fire Nation, but I don't remember the rest." Regaining his posture, Momo jumped back onto Aang's lap and went back to sleep.

"Heh…Po?" Toph said with a grin, "That's weird." Not understanding the joke, Aang simply played along, "Yeah. Toph, I just want to say, 'thanks'".

"Don't get all gushy on me Twinkletoes…and make sure that you return the little ball of fuzz in the morning. He's a lot more fun to hang out with than Sokka all day." She took a small pause, and just went back to her sleeping bag on top of the wooden Sandbender skiff.

"Good night Toph." Aang simply said.

"Sleep tight". Toph automatically said

Aang started to idly pet Momo until he went back to sleep.

"_I'm ready."_

"_Where am I?" _Aang looked around to see the familiar sights, sounds and smells of the Spirit World swamp. It was an odd experience to be in the Spirit World, but it seemed stranger now. Looking down, Aang saw that his reflection was not of his bald self, but Avatar Roku. Looking back up, he saw a monkey dressed up in a monk's clothing making his way a naturally made shrine. "Excuse me!" Roku's voice called out to the monkey spirit.

"Oh dear…" the monkey murmured to himself. "Please, I am trying to start my meditation, and if anyone interrupts me, I will have to start all over again!"

"I apologize for interrupting you noble spirit, but I am here in search of another…named Po."

"Sorry! Don't know him…now please," the monkey said now in a cross legged state with his eyes closed, "Go…away."

"S-sorry for interrupting you..." Roku said as he went in search of Po.

"Humph…I just hope I never have to deal with that man again…Ohhhm"

Walking through the dense marshy ground of the swamp, Roku continued his trek until he saw a large tree. Roku himself did not know who resided in it, but Aang recognized the tree as Ko's.

Working his way towards the lower lair, visibility began to decrease and Roku was forced to use his firebending to see."Hello?" Roku called out, "I'm looking for a spirit named 'Po.'"

"Be careful Roku, this tree is inhabited by a spirit named Koh. If you show one ounce of emotion, he will steal your face!" Aang attempted to warn.

"Yes Avatar-"

"_Welcome!"_ an eerie voice greeted the Avatar as its bulky centipede body popped out of a dark crevice.

Remembering the advice given to him, Roku kept his face bare of any emotion, responding only with a "Thank you". The conversation between Roku and the centipede held an air of déjà vu, with Koh attempting to evoke expression from Roku's face, while Roku continued to ask the crafty spirit of Po's whereabouts.

"_Ah…Po… He is a very tricky creature…much older than I and in such," _Koh paused as he changed his face to an old man's, _"is much more deserving of your fear than I."_

"I thank you for your concern dear spirit," Roku said in a slow and calm manner, "but I need to find Po before it is too late. The fate of the world depends on it."

"_Such a noble man, dear Avatar; you need only to ask for his name in the depths of the dessert in the Earth Kingdom, for he resides among the sand and is cursed to wander it until he can escape the body of which, one of your previous incarnations trapped him in…" _Koh informed Roku in a child's face. Fearing that he may lose the battle against his emotions, Roku quickly said his goodbye to the less than hospitable host, and quickly made his way back to the real wold.


	3. Chapter 3

Aha! I'm back with the third part of "The Nature of Balance", the first episode of "The path to Ba Sing Se" move... Just so the reader(s) know, each part is divided into parts that would show before commercial break, so since this is the third part, only one more part of this episode to go...Yippee!

Of course I don't own Avatar, but I do own Po and Chiang.**  
**

* * *

**Book II: Earth**

**The Nature of Balance**

_The desert…the spirit named Po was in the dessert the whole time. Naturally, only a fellow spirit as treacherous as Koh would know of the other's whereabouts… What if Po, whom Avatar Roku sought out for help hundreds of years ago against the Fire Nation, was still here?_

Quickly being lifted out of his thoughts, Aang could see a bright light ahead of him…and it was coming in fast. He tried to run away from the giant ball of light as it traced after him, but it was too fast, and Aang was caught in the ensuing explosion…

Jolting out of his sleep for the third time in two days, Aang awoke to a gust of wind blowing across his face, and the sense that he was moving strangely quickly for lying face down on the hard wood surface. Sitting up, he realized that he along with Sokka, Toph, Katara and three other Sandbenders were riding on a Sandbender skiff.

"Wakey, Wakey Angie!" teased Sokka in an oddly peppy attitude.

"What are you so happy about Sokka?" Aang asked bluntly.

"Well, knowing Sokka," interjected the warrior's sister,

"He got to have your share of meat this morning" Toph finished Katara's sentence for her.

"Yeah, and it was cured too! Just like Gran-Gran used to make" added Sokka as he nostalgically remembered the meaty goodness he had finished just minutes ago while rubbing his stomach.

Lending a light smile to what was obviously Sokka's attempt to cheer up the gang, Aang was able to recognize the two fully robbed Sandbenders piloting the lead skiff to be Ghashiun and his father, Sha-Mo, but the third was a complete stranger. Or more accurately, Aang didn't remember seeing an old man holding a walking stick, wearing a Sandbender robe, an Earth Kingdom hat, and a blindfold like cloth around his face.

Noticing Aang's stares at the old man, Katara remembered that they had never met before.

"Oh…I almost forgot; Aang!" Katara yelled over the howl of the wind, "This is Chiang! We came across him wandering the dessert about an hour after we set sail this morning!" Feeling comfortable that Katara approved of him, Aang held out his hand in front of the old man.

"Hi…I'm Aang, nice to meet you Chiang!" Aang said politely. About a few seconds had past; Aang repeated what he had said; this time, he boomed it with the help of Airbending. The old man was startled by Aang's yell and almost fell off the skiff if it weren't for Toph grabbing onto Chiang's sleeve.

"He's blind Twinkletoes," Toph said in her lecturing voice, "not deaf!"

It was only then that Aang looked closer at the old man's walking stick to see that it wasn't **just** a walking stick, but it was actually a walking cane.

"Oh," the old man came to Aang's defense in a soft but audible voice, "It's quite alright Lady Bei-Fong; An honest mistake from an honest boy." Chiang then stirred the toothiest grin he could give to prove to the others that he was sincere in what he said.

Hours had passed since the introduction of the new traveler to everyone aboard the _Grand Skiff Sokka_, or GSS for short. Chiang had found himself the center of attention, as he told the gang stories of his life in the dessert. He answered questions about the Earth Kingdom that neither Toph nor the Sandbenders could answer, and it turned out that he wasn't always blind, but that he lost that sense years after living in the desert. Whenever the question of how long he had lived in the dessert arose however, Chiang always skillfully managed to redirect the conversation to another, unrelated story of his life.

Almost everyone in the group seemed to enjoy Chiang's company, and their like was greatly increased when they found an oasis that not even the Sandbenders knew about.

"This is a very important oasis because it is only a days worth of traveling away from the edge of the dessert." Chiang further informed everyone.

"Water!" Aang and Katara seamlessly called out in unison as they ran towards the oasis' center followed Chiang and the Sandbenders.

"I could've found an oasis…" Sokka murmured to himself as he started to gather his stuff from the skiff into his pack.

"Don't worry Sokka, I bet that if you complain enough, everyone will start paying attention to you again." Toph told her sarcastic friendly sweetly. Sokka paused to allow his sarcasm detector to calculate the best witty retort. He found none. Instead, he continued his packing, mumbling as he did so.

"You're not so off on what you said though…" Pausing again, Sokka looked up to Toph confused on what just happened.

"Wha?"

"I don't like him. There's something in the way he walks, or actually, hops."

"Toph, maybe the sand is messing with your 'feet vision'. Besides, Chiang's old. It could just be a really bad limp. Gran-Gran had one too."

"Sokka," Looking back towards Sokka, Toph gave him a stern look and simply said, "He hops."

"Sokka, Toph! Come on in! The water's fine! Waah!" Aang hollered as he was suddenly enveloped by a wave from Katara.

"You forgot the first rule in fighting Aang!" Katara giggled, "Never take your eyes off a waterbender!" As she taunted the now submerged Aang, she noticed that he had been underwater for far too long, his body could be shown just floating underwater. "…Aang?" Of course, Aang was underwater, but wasn't in any trouble. About a foot under the surface, Aang was inside a waterbuble, slowly making his way towards the shore where Katara's muffled voice was calling out for him. Sending one tendril out of the water, Katara's leg was snagged and pulled into the water with her screaming in surprise.

By the time the sun began to set, everyone was around the fire eating dinner. The Sandbenders talked amongst themselves, while the gang and Chiang sat in a smaller group on the other side of the huge bon fire. Sokka and Toph with Momo napping in her lap, sat close to each other, still conspiring about the new traveler while Chiang, Katara and a now injured Aang, nursing a bump on his head with a block of ice, continued talking about their adventures.

"Avatar Aang," one of the Sandbenders caught the attention of the small group, "Seeing as how we are close to the edge of the Si Wong desert, I regret to say that this is as far as we can escort you without accidentally moving through Earth Kingdom territory."

"Thank you so much Sha-Mo." Katara answered, "You've done more than enough for us. I hope you and your people make a safe trip back into the desert."

"I wish the same for you, and I'm sorry for what my son did about-"

"-It's okay Sha-Mo," Aang interrupted the Sandbender mid sentence, "It's in the past, and what happened in the past can't be changed." Aang stood up and bowed down in respect to the Sandbender chieftain and walked away to collect his things from the skiff before the Sandbenders left.

"That reminds me, I have to get my stuff too…" Katara said as she took off after Aang with Chiang in tow. The three leaving now left Toph and Sokka to observe Chiang from a distance.

"I don't know Toph, I still don't see him hop." Sokka said. Toph only groaned at Sokka's disbelief and let her head fall on the ground to sleep.

_Toph…_

"What do you want Sokka?" Toph responded to the voice.

"Uh, I didn't say anything Toph" Sokka said

"What didn't you say?" Katara asked returning with Chiang and Aang with their supplies. The Sandbenders had already left leaving the five in the oasis until the next day.

"Forget it! I just want to get some sleep!" whined Toph as her head dropped onto the sand again. Following her example, the rest of the gang proceeded to sleep as well.

"_Toph! Psst Toph!_" whispered Sokka in the middle of the night. Instead, he tried making vibrations in the sand by drumming on it for a couple of seconds, and almost forgot to keep quiet when he was starting to have a rhythm. Seeing that his attempts were moot, Sokka figured that he had to continue with the plan alone.

"Let's see…" Sokka said as he rummaged through his pack and took out the 'plan scroll'. " 'Operation Sokka's Right' is a go…"


	4. Chapter 4

Nope..still don't own it..**

* * *

**

**Book II: Earth**

**The Nature of Balance**

It was dark. It was more than dark, it was…_really_ dark. So dark in fact, the boy who tried to use the darkness to his advantage fumbled around aimlessly, doing his best to keep his footing on the sand and random bursts of hills. Fed up of needing to spit sand out of his mouth, the boy decided on simply crawling around. That way, he would stop falling down, and also keep low enough out of sight should anyone else see him this late in the night, or was it "this early in the morning?"

Nevertheless, after what seemed to be twenty minutes of crawling in the sand, the boy felt comfortable that he was far enough to start a small fire. He took out the sticks out of the pelt backpack, but found that he forgot the fire rocks back at the camp. Sighing, he began his slow crawl back to fetch the missing rocks. He continued his crawl mumbling in frustration when he bumped into something soft.

"Sokka…what are you doing?" Toph yelled out in a hushed voice.

"Huh? Toph, is that you? I can't see you!" Sokka exclaimed in frustration

"Oh no…how awful." She responded in her classic style. Realizing her sarcasm, Sokka continued to figure out where exactly he was in relation to where Toph was. Other than the grainey feeling between his fingers, he wasn't aware that sand could be soft.

"Where are you then?" Sokka asked again in a hushed voice.

"Closer than you think…" While Sokka was trying to figure out what to do, Toph's situation was far from pleasant. Uncomfortable would be a better word; after almost dying of a migraine from Sokka's idea of a wake up call, she had to fumble around in the sand only to be knocked down onto her back. Now here she was, the "Blind Bandit"; the five time champion of Earth Rumble, being straddled by a water tribe boy confused by the dark. It's not like she asked for this to happen. But Toph wasn't stupid either. Under normal circumstances, she would simply knock him off her with a simple push. Of course, this would cause Sokka to yelp in pain, wake up the others, and draw attention to the reason of why they were up so late at night….or was it early in the morning?

Sokka, still not aware of the precariousness of the situation, moved his hands around to find the missing Toph. _What's this?_ Sokka asked himself…_Oh no_… "Toph! I didn't mean to!" Giving up on playing it safe, an exasperated Toph growled in anger when Sokka poked her eye and got sand in her mouth. Bending some sand into his mouth before punching him off her, Toph managed to kill two birds with a handful of sand. While Sokka rolled around the ground in pain and coughing and spitting out sand, Toph spat out her share and rubbed her irritated eyes. If it wasn't for the darkness, you could've sworn that there was a blush on her face, but of course that could have been because of the intense coughing…who knows?

It took a while, but after a few minutes of calming down and a massive amount of water from the oasis pond, things settled for a bit and the two were now sitting near a fire. They weren't able to retrieve the fire rocks, but Toph was able to provide the next best thing from hardened sand.

"And so, that's my plan. What do you think?" Sokka concluded.

"All right, hearing this I just have some things I'd like to point out." Toph started off. Not hearing anything from Sokka, she continued on, "First off, what does scaring off Chiang have to do with finding out who he really is?"

"It's simple really." Sokka started to explain, "First, we get Momo to dress up in a white sheet and have him fly around. I'll then speak in a spooky voice and interrogate him. He'll be so scared that he'll tell us anything!" Giving a blank expression in Sokka's general direction, Toph sighed in despair.

"Yeah, he's blind. Remember?"

"Oh yea…"

"Secondly, that plan's stupid. Knowing you, I bet that's how you'd plan to get into a Fire nation fort. "

'The plan's not stupid. It's homage to one of my father's greatest pranks."

"I'd bet it is…" Toph muttered under her breath.

"Fine, what idea do you have then?"

"Just follow Chiang and find out what he's up to. We'll play it normal during the day and at night we'll share notes on whatever we found out about him. It's how my parents kept a tab on me during the day. Of course, I could feel the guards from a mile away." Agreeing on the plan, Sokka put his "plan scroll" into his backpack and Toph covered the fire in sand. They started their way back to camp; unaware of a pair of glowing eyes disappearing into the sand with a grin on its face.

"Finally, the sun's up. Let's get going everyone." Aang said in a sleepy tone. Still worried about her Airbending friend, Katara continued to keep a careful and motherly watch. Of course she still kept up with taking care of their blind guide, Chiang. Late to wake up were Sokka and Toph, for obvious reasons. With red eyes and bags under them, the two sleuths dragged themselves from their sleeping bags constantly mumbling along the way.

The day was uneventful, filled with trekking through the vast desert expanse, fighting off hunger induced annoyances from everyone's favorite lemur. "Hey….I think I see something over there!" Sokka called out. Beads of sweat ran down his face as the party walked past a group of cacti. _Are they waving at me?_

"Wait...I think I see it too!" Katara hesitantly said. In the distance, there surely seemed to be an oasis.

"It's probably just a mirage. Let's keep going to Ba Sing Se." Aang said calmly.

"Hold on young man. Katara, what direction have we been going in?" Chiang politely asked. Katara quickly took out the compass that Sha-Mo had given from one of the ruined Sandbender skiffs and glanced at it. _It's pointing away from us…_ "We've been moving Northeast, Chiang."

"Ah! Yes. If that's correct then that _is_ another oasis in the distance." Chiang pointed out happily. "You see, there's a whole chain of them on the way to the desert border. It's how us Sandbenders have lived and traveled...at least, back in my day."

"Heh…yeah right." Grumbled Sokka

"Oh yes….right indeed Sokka!" Both the watertribe boy and lady earthbender looked towards the other's direction and nodded at this new discovery about Chiang. When the group finally reached the oasis, everyone was happy to take a break.

"Water!" Both Aang and Katara screamed in joy as they ran towards the small pool.

"C'mon guys, we've got to get to Ba Sing Se!" Sokka scolded the pair like his father would.

"Yeah, didn't you dweebs already get some swim time at the last oasis?" Toph added in a motherly way.

"Oh come now you two…let them be, we shan't be more than a few minutes." Chiang defended Katara and Aang. At first, Sokka and Toph were just annoyed by how their friends were suddenly acting until Aang asked for them to join in…and was suddenly attacked by Katara from behind.

"Didn't that happen last time as well?" Toph asked the watertribe boy.

"Yeah, now that I'm thinking about it, this oasis looks really familiar as well…" Sokka looked down to Toph for approval to his claim, but she only looked up shrugging her shoulders and moving her foot in the sand for a demonstration. The two looked back towards their friends playing in the water with uneasiness, their gazes directed towards the stranger who walked towards the pool with Aang and Katara's clothes as they strode back onto the shore.

* * *

Well, that's the end of the first episode this is. Tune in for the second part of the non-existent movie in the future! Also, please check out my other story, "The Avatar Returns" and review its OCness!

Thanks for reading!


End file.
